


Ride Or Riot

by ScarletteWrites



Series: Deceptikids [7]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Some Distressing Imagery, Street Racing, optiratch at the end if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 20:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16562951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletteWrites/pseuds/ScarletteWrites
Summary: Deceptikids version of the episode 'Speed Metal', takes place directly after the events of 'Sent Home'.Tala - afraid of going home - asks if she can join Knockout participating in a street race. Knockout agrees, but the pair find some familiar (and none too friendly) faces have also joined them.





	Ride Or Riot

Knockout and Tala had been sat in silence. The red Aston Martin had been flicking through radio channels out of boredom, vaguely aware Tala had curled in on herself in the backseat - the hood of her jacket pulled up to obscure her face. At least she wasn’t breathing on the window.

“Not to make you think I  _ care  _ or anything,” Knockout said, startling the young girl, “But what’s wrong?”

“... do you have one of those street races tonight?” Tala asked.

Knockout noted the quick change of subject, but didn’t comment on it, “Of course. Not that far from here actually.”

“Can I come with?”

“Fine,” The mech replied, “ _ But, _ you have to tell me what’s going on.”

The human rolled her eyes, “It’s  _ nothing _ . I just…” She fidgeted with one of the drawstrings of her hoodie, “I don’t wanna go home tonight.”

The car slowly rolled to a stop. Tala leaned forward, confused. “Tala, I…” She heard gravel crunch under the barely moving tires, “If you don’t want to go home, you don’t have to.”

She smiled, “I know, but thanks Knockout.”

Knockout began moving again as the uncomfortable air dissipated, “Why don’t you tell me about this Vince.”

“Oh god! Where do I even start-!” Tala snapped, throwing herself forcefully back, “First off, he’s the biggest dick-”

“Language.”

“He’s the biggest  _ jerk _ ,” Tala corrected sarcastically, “I mean, that’s not really a big thing, but he only picks on people he knows won’t fight back - or worse, can’t. Like that lil kid before - there’s no way he could’ve kicked Vince’s ass. When it’s someone like Jack then yeah, I kinda get it, but that was a  _ baby _ .”

“Jack?” Knockout asked, the name seemed… familiar.

“Jack Darby, he’s in Daisy’s science class. I haven’t talked to him much, he’s so  _ boring _ . Daisy had to work with him on a presentation and he kept making excuses and not doing any work, she was pretty pissed but didn’t say anything. Vince hates him for some reason - probably a girl or something stupid.”

“That’s funny,” Knockout said, smug smile obvious in his voice, “Didn’t you get into a fight with Vince because he insulted your girl friend?”

“It’s different! Me and Daisy are best friends, I’d kill anyone who’d even think of hurting her and she’d do the same for me. The girl Vince and Jack are fighting over probably doesn’t even know they exist!” Tala explained, “And girlfriend means something completely different.”

“Ah. How so?”

“Okay, so.” She paused, trying to think of an easy way to explain it, “You and Breakdown would be boyfriends - or girlfriends, maybe? - but me and you are just friends. Same with uh, Daisy and Breakdown, Alex and Starscream and Max and Soundwave. Me and Daisy are  _ best friends _ , because we’ve been friends for a long time and we tell eachother everything but we don’t… like,  _ love-love  _ the other.”

“I think I get it,” Knockout said, “She’s your amica, then.”

“I… guess?” Tala replied, “Boyfriend and girlfriend are like conjunk and best friend is like amica.”

“Conjunx.” Knockout corrected.

“Conjunx.” Tala repeated, smile creeping onto her face, “...Hey, Knockout?

“Hm?”

“Thanks.”

 

* * *

 

“Knockout, Starscream’s asking after you,” Breakdown’s voice crackled through the internal comm, “Where’d you go?”

“Like I said, I went to pick up my little runaway charge.” Knockout said, Tala threw her hat at the windshield.

“That was  _ four hours _ ago,” Breakdown replied, “Why didn’t you just drop her off back home?”

“We’re-” Knockout began, only to be interrupted by Tala jumping forward.

“We’re following up a lead on the Autobot base!” Tala lied.

“You - are you not wearing your seatbelt?!” Knockout asked angrily.

Breakdown laughed, “Well, when you’re done… ahem, ‘following leads’, you should get back here. Nothin’ major but I think Starscream wants to talk to you.” He paused, “And Tala? Wear your seatbelt.”

Tala huffed, “You guys are ganging up on me.”

“Only because you could die.” Knockout said, “And cleaning your squishy guts out of my interior would be a pain.”

“Aw, its cute that you care so much KO.” Breakdown said, smile obvious in his voice.

“Goodnight Breakdown I love you let’s not speak about this now or ever even, bye!” Knockout said so fast Tala barely heard him. Before Breakdown could even reply, he cut the commline.

“Now,” Knockout said with a rev of his engine, “I believe we have a race to get to.”

 

* * *

 

Knockout pulled into the overpass where the race was set to begin, Tala glanced out the window - having moved to the driver's seat and activated her enersuit to avoid her being recognised - she saw a familiar face.

“I wonder what Sierra is doing here.” Tala commented, “This doesn’t seem like her kinda scene.”

“I’m surprised they let a child wander around this place,” Knockout replied, “These races are dangerous, the drivers even more so. Don’t open the door or windows.”

“And yet, you let me come along.”

“I’m here to protect you,” Knockout said, “Physically, anyways. Any emotional trauma from this is on you. I’m a doctor, not a therapist.”

“Therapists  _ are  _ doctors. Just a different kind.” Tala said, rolling her eyes. She slumped back in her seat, and when Knockout didn’t respond she resigned herself to watching the remaining stragglers pull in. A purple Porsche, a couple customs and beat-up looking BMW’s, a yellow and black Camaro and…

“Holy shit, that’s  _ Vince’s  _ car.” Tala said.

Knockout laughed, “Well, what are the odds of that. One could almost say it’s a sign.” Tala could hear the smirk creeping up into his voice, “Why don’t we teach him a lesson?”

Tala shrugged, “Depends. You got any idea?”

“Oh, there’s nothing scarier to you squishies than getting pushed off the road,” Knockout said, “I take it you don’t want him dead, but scaring a little kindness into someone is necessary sometimes.”

“I mean, it’d probably be hilarious,” Tala said, “But if you go after Vince, you won’t win.”

“Oh Tala dearest, it’s not about winning,” Knockout replied, “It’s about the  _ sport _ .”

 

* * *

 

Vince couldn’t believe it, not only was Jack somehow  _ beating  _ him but this weirdo with the red car kept trailing him. It was starting to seriously grate on his nerves - was that freak in the mask even focused on the race?! They barely looked like they were driving.

The fifth time they bumped into him, Vince decided that he had enough. The teen grit his teeth and slammed on the breaks - spinning the wheel to turn the car around and block in the person behind him.

Vince glared at the masked freak behind the wheel as the other cars speed past them. They didn’t even move. Vince snapped.

He threw open the car door and ran towards them - leaving the door open.

“The HELL is your problem?!” He shouted, slamming his fist on the window.

The window rolled down, the masked figure slowly turning to face him. An oddly automated voice spilled from the figure, “You shouldn’t have done that.”

Vince flinched. The figure opened to door, taking great care when closing it behind them. They suddenly thrust down their fist - producing a mechanical (and dangerous) looking saw.

::Holy shit, Knockout!:: Tala said excitedly over their internal comms, ::How come you didn’t tell me this suit could do this?!::

::Because I know you,:: Knockout replied, ::Don’t get too excited now.::

Tala slowly approached Vince - saw lifted above her head. She felt like a bad guy in a slasher - she felt  _ powerful _ .

She heard Knockout grunt in pain, and spun around to see Knockout be thrown by what she assumed to be an Autobot.

::Knockout!:: She cried out. The mech transformed - staff at the ready and glaring at the yellow Autobot.

His optics flicked to her, ::Get out of here,  _ now _ !::

::I’m not leaving you!::

Tala heard a metal clang - her suit registering mild damage on the left side. She turned around to see -

Jack Darby?!

In the moment of shock, Jack had taken the opportunity to hit her once again with the crowbar he was wielding. This time it made contact with the glass of her visor, causing it to crack. Overtaken by adrenaline, Tala delivered a quick kick to Darby’s stomach, followed by a punch to the face. Tala winced as the teen fell to the ground - maybe punching a soft human when you’ve got metal fists wasn’t the best idea.

She felt someone grab her - forcefully. She was tossed up and while her brain was trying to remember what seeing was, her enersuit started registering damage again. 

::Tala!:: Knockout had called, which had been enough to knock her out of her stupor. She was staring face-to-face with the Autobot and it was  _ crushing her _ . It whirred ominously before increasing the pressure - it was starting to get hard to breathe.

Knockout was freaking out over their internal comms but Tala couldn’t comprehend any of it - her fear and excitement tangled up in one big messy web until she threw up her free arm and slammed it down as a saw.

The Autobot’s face scrunched up in pain, dropping Tala as it grabbed at its damaged wrist. Tala felt herself falling but all the energy had gone out of her the moment she’d thrown her fist down - she felt something softly grab her before she had hit the ground and felt the dizzying sensation of Knockout transforming around her.

She lay on the backseat, vaguely aware Knockout was speeding away. When her mind managed to gain any sense of coherence and she stopped feeling like she was going to throw up over the back seat, she spoke up.

“Thank you.” Her voice was hoarse and much quieter than usual.

“No need to thank me,” Knockout said, clearly shaken but much better at covering it up than the human, “You did very well.”

Tala looked at her left arm, coated in a strange blue liquid. “I should’ve gone for it’s eyes.” She muttered.

 

* * *

 

Ratchet grumbled as he repaired Bumblebee’s servo. Self-repair would’ve taken care of such a small injury - but time and energon was not a luxury the Autobots had.

The medic listened in as the scout gave his report to Optimus. The Prime clearly wasn’t happy with Bumblebee sneaking out, and the fact one of the humans had gotten hurt in the crossfire seemed to make him more disappointed in the scout.

“I expected better from you, Bumblebee.” The Prime began, “You are not the sparkling you once were, and we all expect you to act like the adult that you are.”

Bumblebee was far from an adult in Ratchet’s optics, probably in Optimus’ too. But they didn’t have a choice, he was one of the very few to survive the war. Even if he did have a few scars.

Ratchet suddenly felt very, very ill.

“These new drones are dangerous,” Jack interrupted, “Do… do you think the Decepticons made them to hurt humans?”

“Hurting humans is not very high on Megatron’s priority list.” Ratchet answered, “They’re more than likely infiltration drones - and considering how long it took that drone to respond to you, not very well coded ones. Shockwave is getting sloppy.”

“Or perhaps,” The Prime said, “We have yet to see these drone’s full capabilities.”

“‘Perhaps’ doesn’t get us very far.” Arcee chimed in, “Next time we see one of those things, we should leave enough intact for Ratchet to have a look.”

Ratchet grumbled in response, trying to ignore how much Arcee sounded like her sire. The medic stiffened slightly as he felt a servo on his shoulder.

“I would hate to overburden you, old friend.” Optimus said, “But I think Arcee may be right.”

Ratchet huffed, “The biggest problem we have is getting them to hold back enough to not shatter the thing into pieces.” 

Optimus smiled softly in response to his friend’s dry humor. It was brief, but familiar. And it made Ratchet wished, for the millionth time this week, that the Autobots had  _ something  _ that made that smile stay.

He wished everything wasn’t so hopeless.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is rated T for 'holy shit, bumblebee almost kills a child'.  
> seriously, this took a looong time (between college stuff, becoming a dm and trying to improve my art, finding time to write has been hard) but i think i like it a lot (granted i feel that way about most of my fics, and when i post them i almost immediately hate them)  
> title is based on the ken ashcorp song 'ryder or riot' bcs idk it sounds like something that would in the trailer for a fast and furious movie. im really bad at titles.  
> i think the more i write ko, the more im comfortable in making him the lovable asshole he is. it makes his dynamic w tala a lot more fun bcs hes clearly the adult in their relationship, but hes also emotionally still rlly immature. boi needs to be open w his feelings.  
> writing the back and forth w tala and ko was really fun - tbh i could just write about the decepikids talking to their partners and id have so much fun.  
> also the explanation of conjunx and amica is for ppl (including one of my irl friends WHOOPS) who are reading these fics and hasnt read the idw comics. if a concept i mention in passing sounds cool, its probably from the comics. or animated.  
> as much fun as the kobd/tala and daisy dynamic is, im happy we get a break for a short while (the next two fics are centered on max and alex and their cons). most of the kobd centered episodes were surprisingly close together - which is weird bcs bd gets killed off p quick in s2 (i think it was s2) and ko basically becomes a background character till thirst  
> vince is such a nothing character, hes only rlly good as a source of conflict. bcs hes an ass. i wish tala could've decked him with her Lesbian Metal Fist instead of jack.  
> do i ship optimus and ratchet? honestly i cant tell myself. i was trying to write them as close friends but it still feels real shippy to me which,,, isnt a bad thing i guess. they have such a cute dynamic in prime, i think i ship them.  
> me trying to write prime arcee is a mess. i have no idea what the writers had in mind for her other than 'cable but girl'. so i made her a bit of a strategist (in that......... one line she got lmao)  
> also me?? ur local decepticon sympathiser??? writing the autobots as super sympathetic?? no, i havent been killed and replaced by a clone, i just really like prime ratchet a lot so the autobots get to be sad too i guess


End file.
